Answers

This is taken from ELENET:

AMTECH ELEVATOR SERVICES NEWS: Eric Lazear, president of Amtech
Elevator Services, recently sent a letter to all Amtech employees
concerning the soon purchase of the company by Otis Elevator Co. In
the letter, Lazear assured the employees, all 600-plus of them are
expected to be retained by Otis when the transaction becomes final
by October 31. Until then, the company will continue to do business
as a subsidiary of ABM Industries, Inc. ABM Industries announced
July 9 it had agreed to sell almost all of the operating assets of
Amtech Elevator Services to Otis Elevator Co. for US$112 million,
the amount subject to certain adjustments. The transaction is
expected to be closed by October 31. ABM Industries indicated the
sale of its elevator subsidiary would help raise funds for the
expansion of its other businesses. The company expects the sale to
result in an after-tax gain of US$1 per share.

From the perspective of a parts supplier its getting worse for us.
In the NY area we've seen numerous customers acquired by OTIS
including good customers like Economy, Martin, Sterling, Alliance,
Garden State and Universal. Kone has bought Staley and Garden State
Metro. The net effect is that we have lost 20-30K a month in sales
since all parts requisitions now go through the OSC (Otis Service
Center). We anticipate that the Amtech deal will also cause a
further loss of business. The core of our business has always been
the independent elevator companies and we are now forced to focus
our efforts on the Otis, Kone and Schindler to preserve our market
share.
Patrick A. Carrajat
Chairman
Certified Elevator & escalator Products